BY E. P. RAMSAY, F.L.S. 29 



Mr. Hunstein informs me that he shot the female bird on the 

 nest, and that there cannot be any possibility of a mistake as to 

 its authenticity, which judging from the state the egg was in, I can 

 quite believe. 



On Some Habits of Pelopceus L.etus and a Species of 



Larrada. 

 By H. Kawes Whittell, Esq. 



On the 2nd January, 1880, numbers of a species of hornet, 

 Peloposus Icetus, took possession of our fireplace for the purpose of 

 constructing their nests. I began to observe their movements, 

 confining my attention principally to one pair ; this pair readily 

 decided upon a site, and began to build by securing thereon a 

 shapeless mass of mud about half a square inch in area, which 

 they brought in small portions from the bank of the Darling- 

 River, which was close by. 



One of them worked out a shallow circular space, similar in 

 shape to a saucer, using its mandibles, tarsi of the first pair of 

 legs, and autennse in the operation. The loads of mud before 

 deposited almost promiscuously, are now arranged by each one on 

 the edge of this saucer-shaped cavity, pressed into proper shape 

 and thickness, and finished off forthwith. As the cell grows, the 

 upper portion is made to project considerably beyond the lower. 

 This is convenient, owing to the position they assume ; always 

 getting beneath the cell, and invariably working from the upper 

 to the lower portion. 



The work progresses in this way without interruption until the 

 cell is about half or two-thirds the required depth ; when the 

 owners begin to insert their own bodies occasionally evidently to 

 see how the interior is for size. About this time also they begin 

 to draw out the lower portion of the cell, to a more nearly equal 

 distance with the upper, from the base ; it is also further 

 strengthened by mud being piled on the top, and at either side. 

 When the hornet finds that the cell is equal, or nearly so, in depth 



